Almost five months after he took charge at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as its second director-general and mission director, Vijay S Madan says he is anticipating challenges associated with enrolling the tail-end of the population with special needs even though the initial set of enrollments were easy to do. In an interview with FE’s Kirtika Suneja, he talks about how the ambitious direct benefits transfer (DBT) programme can further use the platforms developed by the authority. Edited excerpts:
What is the progress of enrollments and Aadhaar
generation??
We have done almost 41 crore enrollments and the last 10 crore were done in a span of four months and a few days. We are generating almost 2 crore Aadhaar numbers per month with an average of 7 lakh per day. So, the enrollments are happening at a good rate. We give 20 days to the enrollment agencies for uploading the data and then it gets into the queue for quality control to check for biometric or other process errors.
The National Population Register is working in tandem with the UIDAI. Are there overlaps?
The two agencies are involved only in the enrollment process with the ultimate aim of getting everyone in the Aadhaar network. So, there are no overlaps.
What kind of errors come up in the process of generating the Aadhaar numbers?
There are decrypt failures when the details uploaded by the enrollment agencies can’t be synced with the backend. These system failures are only 1-1.5% of the total and that is when re-enrollments are done. However, the number of people who come back because they have not received their Aadhaar number even after giving their biometric and demographic details is more than these failures.
Where are you facing challenges while enrolling people? Some states or certain sections?
The challenges relate to certain sections such as old, bedridden, those living in remote areas and differently-abled where special efforts have to be made. We are working with the ministry of social justice and empowerment on how to approach these enrollments. We have begun special training for such areas.?
Will this mean increasing the enrollment fee paid to
registrars?
In the first phase of enrollment, up to 20 crore people, the registrars were paid R 50, which they pay to the enrolling agencies. However, we realised that they were spending close to Rs 30 in their actual contracts. So, the finance ministry reduced the fee to R40 in the second phase, which is ongoing. This fee also covers the cost of dispatch. In fact, we changed the medium of dispatch from speed post in the first phase to ordinary post now due to the fee reduction. If we reduce it beyond that, then work may get stalled and we need to give the registrars elbow room to operate. For these sections, the expense will be more as the enrollment agencies will have to go them to include them in the Aadhaar database. We have asked the registrars to use the money they have saved but there is no plan to increase the fee.
In which states have enrollments reached that level where the saved up money can be spent to start the next phase?
Once a state reaches the 90-95% enrollment mark, the registrars can start enrolling through the money they save. Himachal Pradesh is one such state along with certain districts of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Maharashtra is almost 80% while Chandigarh, Delhi, Goa, Tripura and Sikkim are getting there. As the enrollments reach their peak, the state governments will also push the registrars to touch the 100% mark. Hence, we do not have to pay the registrars extra and the fee paid to them gets used up in the enrollment ecosystem itself.?
